Thermoresponsive liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have a high potential to be used for actuation applications. There has been a substantial amount of literature on synthesis of different LCE networks and their corresponding performance. However, much of the prior work focuses on the experimental aspect of the effects of mesogenic species, crosslinkers, and spacers on the thermal and mechanical response of LCE. Here we have built on these prior studies, and expanded understanding of LCE work capacity and thermal properties to the molecular and network structures by comparing the experimental results to the theoretically predicted values based on a random walk model derived from classical rubber elasticity. A previously developed two stage thiol-acrylate LCE chemistry was used as the model system. On the basis of increasing the chain entropy, we varied crosslinker concentration, crosslinker functionality, and liquid crystal mesogen length and showed that average molecular weight b...

中文翻译：

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网络结构对液晶弹性体机械和热响应的影响

热敏液晶弹性体（LCE）具有很高的潜力，可用于驱动应用。关于不同的LCE网络的合成及其相应性能，已有大量文献报道。但是，许多先前的工作集中在介晶物种，交联剂和间隔基对LCE的热和机械响应影响的实验方面。在这里，我们以这些先前的研究为基础，通过将实验结果与基于经典橡胶弹性的随机游走模型的理论预测值进行比较，从而对LCE的工作能力和分子和网络结构的热性质有了更深入的了解。使用先前开发的两阶段硫醇丙烯酸酯LCE化学作为模型系统。在增加链熵的基础上，